Of Pharaohs and Magicians
by Cometflight525
Summary: Mahad will always come for Atem. Whenever he's lost, the Magician will come. Three parts, no pairings
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey guys! I'm back with my first Yu-Gi-Oh fanfiction! I'm not going to have any actual dueling in this, sorry, but I'm just learning to play right now. This is a little thingie that popped into my head out of nowhere. Oh, and I know Kul Elna is supposed to be empty, but let's just assume there are a few people there.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. I am still working on that.**

_"blah"- mind-to-mind speech_

The waves from the heat rolling over the sand made Mahad's search difficult. He and his _ka_, the Illusion Magician, had been searching for hours. So far, no sign of the object of his search, just the thrice-blasted sand and rocks that were everywhere in Egypt. He couldn't make out anything else. It seemed he was the only person for miles, as far as he was from any settlements. Perhaps a nomad or two, but no towns. He urged the tan horse he was riding into a faster trot.

Certainly not the Pharaoh.

Atem _had_ to be nearby. The priest wished feverently for his Millienium Object, the Ring, which he knew could lead him to the Pharaoh. Ra curse that filthy Thief King who had taken it from him. That _slime_ was responsible for this whole mess. If Bakura hadn't come... if they'd been warned before... if he had been faster... maybe then Atem would be safe right now. The events of four nights ago replayed in his head for the thousandth time.

_Meeting with the villagers of Kul Elna... Atem convincing them he had come to make peace... the hostility changing to suspicion and then respect for the Pharaoh, who would come to a forbidden village full of potential enemies with only a priest and seven armed guards..._

_The terror of the residents as Bakura attacked them that night, his own people... Atem facing him, commanding Mahad and the guards to protect the villagers... sending them away from him, the person they were sworn to protect..._

_The crazed look in Bakura's eyes, his insane laughter... Atem's anger... Mahad's own disgust at a man who claimed to be the champion of his people, but would attack them for the sake of revenge against one person..._

He shook his head and tried to clear the thoughts out of his head. He didn't need those, not now. There would be time to analyze what had gone wrong later. Now was the time to find the Pharaoh, and bring him home. The sun had sunk a little lower. He needed to find Atem_ now_. If he had escaped from Bakura, he was probably mentally and physically exhausted, and without food or water, very dangerous out in this untamed stretch of desert that surrounded Kul Elna.

_The snarls of Bakura's Diabound... the battle cry of Slifer as Atem summoned the powerful sky dragon... Diabound's acidic blood hissing as it hit the sand, staining it black... Slifer's scream of defiance when Diabound blasted its neck, breaking the red scales... Atem's answering gasp... _

_Diabound's sudden lunge, the snakelike strike straight onto the gash in Slifer's scales... Slifer collapsing, disappearing, the unbeatable God monster defeated... Atem falling with his dragon, lying still on the cool sand..._

_Watching helplessly as Atem was dragged away... knowing he had failed in his duties to protect the king. His friend..._

Mahad dragged his thoughts back to the present and realized he hadn't been paying attention, so he turned and doubled back. Nothing, still just sand and rocks and more sand- there! The priest stopped, peering down at the... _thing_ on the ground. What- exactly- was it? A closer look might help, he decided. He swung off the horse and bent down, and Illusion Magician swooped and landed near the object curled in the sand. It was practically impossible to tell what it was, with all the dust covering it.

Colors... what might have been white, but now the color of the sand. Tan... a glint of gold? A person, Mahad decided. The face was dirty, the hair dusty...the hair! Violet, black, golden bangs and streaks! The colors of night, twilight, and afternoon. _I found you. I finally found you._

"Atem! Thank Ra, are you hurt?" the magician exclaimed, sinking to his knees in gratitude and relief. _He is safe..._

No response. "My king? Answer me, please." _Atem! Why do you not awaken? _

The king stayed still, unresponsive to the older man's calls. _He must be unconcious... or trapped in his own mind. _Closing his eyes, the magician focused, and tried to break through the barriers. _Please, my king, forgive me for my intrusion. Allow me to find what ails you._ Straining to reach him, Mahad focused on reaching him. _He must respond to me. He must._

The walls around Atem's mind were weak, he noticed. A bad sign. _Usually I would not have been able to contact him without him demanding who was invading his mind._ And- there! He was through. The pharaoh's mind seemed blank, endless, like an empty void. _Something is wrong. Something is terribly wrong here. Just what did Bakura do to him? How- agh! _

The emptiness he'd been feeling dissipated. Now he felt something holding his conciousness, in a determined, but weak, grip. _"Who... who are you? What do... what do you want?", _The voice questioned. Without Mahad realizing, a smile crossed his face. Atem was _safe_.

Suddenly the grip tightened. _"Who are you?", _The speaker growled angrily.

_"Atem! It is I, Mahad!"_

The chokehold on him ceased. _"Mahad? How..."_

_"We've been looking for you for several days. We were all worried."_

_"And... you found me..."_

Mahad nodded. _"It wasn't easy. Are you hurt?"_

_"Not badly, just sore, and exhausted. I'll explain how I escaped later. It's... a long story."_

He nodded. However the pharaoh had managed to get away, it was more important to get him home safely. _"Can you wake up? It will be easier to return to the palace if you are concious."_

_"Yes." _

Atem blinked open his eyes to see Mahad standing over him. He realized he was curled up in the sand on his side, and sat up. He moaned twice, once as his sore muscles protested the extertion of the past few days, again as he realized just how filthy his clothes were.

Mahad smiled to himself as he realized the reason behind Atem's moan. "Let's get you back, and into some clean clothes. Those are absolutely filthy."

Atem gave the priest a long, hard look. Was he joking? No, it couldn't be. Mahad was much too serious to make a joke. He shrugged it off, and stood, then wobbled. Mahad swiftly grabbed his arm to prevent his fall.

"It seems you're a little worse off then you thought. Get on the horse. I'll take us back."

The pharaoh clambered into the saddle, and Mahad took the reins and began to lead them back to the capital. Atem stayed quiet the whole way back, and when they were close to entering the city, Mahad realized he was asleep. He looked very innocent when he was sleeping, he thought, as if all of the troubles he had were nonexsistant. Atem never seemed to be like that when he was awake. Always so busy trying to take care of all the problems of the kingdom. Often, people seemed to forget he was only fifteen years old. In a way, it seemed a bit sad that the whole kingdom relied on a teenager for their safety.

Thank Ra for overly mature teenage boy kings.

Atem slept the whole way through the marketplace, oblivious to the noise and activity around him. As they approached the palace, guards came running out to meet the two.

"Master Mahad! You found the Pharaoh! Is he alright?"

"Yes," Mahad sighed. "He is unharmed. Has the council begun?"

The two guards nodded, and Mahad realized he would need to act quickly. He gently shook Atem awake. "My king, you must awaken. We must go; the council is meeting."

Atem yawned, and slid off the horse. "You're right, as always... it is important."

Even before he had finished his sentence, he felt himself slipping, and then Mahad's strong arm was around him, preventing his otherwise-painful fall.

"Nevermind, my pharaoh, it is off to bed with you." He guided Atem into the palace, and escorted him into his room, where the prince quickly slumped onto the bed, then sat straight up.

"Wait- the council! I have to be there... its important, they'll think I'm shirking my duty..."

Mahad smirked, imagining the nobles daring to say such a thing, when Atem could easily have their heads cut off and fed to the gods.

"Not to worry, my prince- _I_ will deal with them."

Atem chuckled at his old friend's statement. "I would enjoy seeing that..." he said, already drifting off.

Mahad left the pharaoh's apartments, already bracing himself to deal with the power-hungry, grasping nobles. His fellow Guardians would back him up, of course, but those _nobles_...

_Rest, my king. _I _will deal with the troubles of the kingdom for today_

**A/N: Eh... Not particularly pleased with this, but I'm afraid salena98 will kill me if I don't publish this... Please, tell me what you thought! **

**There are two more parts to this little weirdness.**


	2. Chapter 2

**And, after a way too long wait- I'm sorry!- here is the second chapter of Of Pharaohs and Magicians... which is completely unrelated to the first, but instead goes with the theme of Mahad finding Atem (And Mana, this time)**

**By the way, does everyone else hate the new review thingie? The box **_**thanks you**_**. It's creepy!**

**Disclaimer: Does Zexal exist? Then I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.**

**Warnings: Cuteness. You have been warned.**

_**Bold- Atem's writing**_

_Underlined- Mana's writing_

It seemed to be quite an ordinary day for Mahad. The sun was shining, the day was hot, and Mana and Atem were late for their lessons. _Again._ It seemed that recently, whenever he or Shimon tried to get the two to settle down for some learning, the duo would find some way to escape. Then, instead of the important lessons they were _supposed_ to be doing, they were off playing pranks on the servants or going places they shouldn't.

He recalled the last time the two had skipped class. They had decided that their time would be better spent at the Nile river, where the prince and apprentice ended up covered in mud, and had come skipping back just before sunset, coating the whole palace in muck, just hours after it had been cleaned. Or when Mana had decided to prank Mahad with a spell that would force him to speak in rhymes all day, but the spell had backfired and turned Atem's hair bright pink instead, which took over a week to fade. Or the time when the two had nearly gotten themselves kidnapped by slave traders, and the only reason the two were still around was because Shimon had happened to notice that the two new palace slaves looked strangely like the prince and his klutzy friend.

Needless to say, Mahad was going to hunt those two down and force them to work, even if he had to chain them up to do it.

He started his seach within the palace. The magician wandered through the servant's quarters, then to the kitchens, nearly getting himself covered in boiling soup as he did. The two weren't in the library, or the Guardian's quarters. Nor were they playing in the throne room or running through the palace gardens. They weren't even in one of the many empty rooms of the palace. _Where could they be?_ he wondered.

A memory came back to him, of one of Mana's favorite hiding places, and so he rushed through the corridors, checking every single vase, pot, and jar he encountered. In a large vase near the women's chambers, he reached in and grabbed a small piece of folded papyrus, which he unfolded and read.

_Good job, Mahad! You remembered my favorite hiding spot! But you'll never catch us! Never ever!_

_Okay, Atem says I have to give you a clue._

_**Head to the place where all is mud**_

_**Where Mana and I had our most recent fun**_

_**I know that you won't want to get dirty**_

_**So here's a hint- go to the biggest rock, then walk north counting to thirty.**_

Mahad crumpled the paper in his hand. "Those two! When I catch that apprentice of mine..." He didn't really want to walk all the way down to the Nile, but Atem and Mana would probably hide out there until he came to get them. Sighing, he headed for the river.

When he arrived, he looked for the biggest rock he could find. Was it that one? Or was it the one half submerged in the water? Or could they have meant the oddly colored one, which glinted slightly?

He decided to try the glinting one. Knowing Mana, she would want to hide near the 'shiny rock', as she called it.

The magician faced north, then began to walk thirty paces. "One, two, three, four... twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty!" Glancing around revealed... absolutely nothing, just sand, sand, and more sand. There was no note, no Mana, and no Atem anywhere in sight. Then, Mahad remembered the spell he had recently taught Mana- one to make things invisible. Looking back, that seemed rather a bad idea, but it was a bit too late now.

Without speaking, he mouthed the counterspell to make hidden things visible. After a few seconds, he still saw nothing. Then, the wind blew, and something moved under his foot, and he grabbed it, which was another folded piece of papyrus.

_**So Mana's spell actually worked? I didn't expect it to- **_here there was a smudge.

_**Sorry, Mana hit me. Well, good job figuring out the clue. Mana said it was too obvious, but it wasn't, right? **_

_It's my turn for the hint! Okay, here goes!_

_Go to the place where it's always busy_

_Where everyone is and they're all in a hurry_

_Check where they sell my favorite treat_

_The one that's delicious and all nice and sweet!_

Mana's favorite treat... that would be fruit! Mahad concentrated, and felt the familiar rush of the magic as he teleported.

He dusted off his robes and started into the market, searching for a fruitseller. As he passed, people stared at him- after all, he had gold on him, and his robes were made out of fine linen. He looked much too important to be wandering a peasant market. Mahad ignored the stares and searched for his destination. He couldn't seem to find a fruitseller, besides ones selling dates, which he knew Mana hated.

Ah, over there, that woman was selling mangos! Mana loved those, he recalled. He wandered over to the woman's stall and started to look at the mangos, as if he was interested in buying one. There didn't _seem_ to be anything hidden, and he couldn't sense any of Mana's magic, so that meant that the message had to be buried somewhere under the mangos.

Reaching down, he fished through the bin of orange fruit, until he felt a strong hand grasp his other arm. He looked into the angry face of the previously-smiling shop owner.

"What are you doing, putting your grubby fingers all over my mangos?" she raged. At that moment, Mahad's fingers touched a piece of papyrus, and he grasped it as he responded.

"Ma'am, I assure you, my hands are not grubby. I am a member of the Pharaoh's sacred court, and-"

"If you're a Guardian, then I'm the Queen! Get out of here, you rat!" With those words, she hit him over the head, and he went running, holding tightly to the note as he ran. Once he was a good distance away from the furious shopkeeper, he unfolded the note.

_You made it, Mahad! You're nearly there! Just follow this last clue._

_**Head to the place where learning is key**_

_**The place that's avoided by Mana and me.**_

The note was much shorter then the others, and he prayed to all the gods it was the last note. The sun was beginning to set, and he was still no nearer to finding the two of them than he was that morning. The magician again teleported, and within a few seconds was at the palace gates.

He struggled inside, annoyed, exhausted, and covered in dust, ignoring the questioning glances of his fellow Guardians and scowling at anyone who approached. Then Mahad stomped into the palace and through the halls, until he reached the classroom. He threw open the door...

...Where he saw both Atem and Mana sitting, looking perfectly innocent. The troublesome duo turned to him, and said in unison, "You're late, Master Mahad!"

**That... went waaay off track. Poor Mahad, I'm so evil to him...**

**So, please R&R!**


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